FOOTNOTES:

J'ay bien dormi ceste nuit.Tu as trop mangé.Il a trop bu, etc.

The practical exercises, which fill the next three hundred pages, reproduce the dialogues of the same sixteenth-century writers—the only two who retained their popularity in the seventeenth. The exercises of theFrench Schoolemaister, theFrench Littleton, and theFrench Alphabetare all repeated without any acknowledgement.

Like Du Terme, Cogneau attached much importance to pronunciation and reading. He held that pronunciation was best learnt with the help of a teacher, and that rules were not of much use in this case.

"I have observed," he writes, "how many of my countrymen have taken great pains and labour to show the English how to pronounce the French letters, by letters; but these men labour in vain: for I know that the true pronunciation of any tongue whatsoever cannot be taught so: nor none can learn it so; I mean, to speak it well and truly as it ought to be: to learn to understand it by such rules, one may in time and with great pains, but, as I have said, never to speak it well and perfectly, without he be taught by some master. I say not that the rules are unprofitable, no, for they are very profitable being well used, and the learner being well directed to understand them aright; but, as I have said, so I say still, that whosoever will learn this noble and famous tongue, must chuse one that can speak good French, and one that hath a good method in teaching, and the first thing to learn of him must be to pronounce perfectly our 22 letters, and give every one its due sound and pronunciation."

The student should undertake nothing until he has mastered the sounds of the letters and syllables.PAUL COGNEAUThen he may passto the reading, "and in that reading learn to spell perfectly, for it is that which will perfect thee, so that thou wilt be able to correct many Frenchmen both in their speaking and writing, if thou wilt take pains to learn it perfectly and be as perfect in it as in thy native tongue. If thou dost mark well what I have said, and do it, and if thou hast a good teacher, thou maiest learn the French tongue easily in a year." Cogneau gives his grammar rules in both French and English, and evidently intended them to form part of the reading material on which the student was to begin as soon as he had mastered the French sounds. From these he proceeds to the dialogues. "Thou must learn this book perfectly, to read the French in English and also the English in French perfectly, and I durst warrant that whosoever shall learn this book perfectly will be a perfect Frenchman, and shall be able both to speak and write the French tongue much better than the most part of Frenchmen." The only differences, then, between the methods advocated by Laur Du Terme and Cogneau are that the first would have the student learn the pronunciation by reading, and the second from the lips of a master before the student begins to read; and that Cogneau adopts the method of double translation, so strongly urged by De la Mothe, while Du Terme mentions only translation of French into English. In fact, Cogneau's method was probably suggested by the sixteenth-century teachers.

Cogneau'sGuidewas in vogue for a number of years. In 1658 a French teacher, Guillaume Herbert, who appears to have had no mean opinion of his own abilities, edited the fourth edition. He describes the earlier form of the work as a "blind" guide rather than a sure one, but now that it has been revised by him "both masters and scholars may with more confidence venture upon it as the most correct book now extant of this kind and in these tongues, and I dare promise them that if I live to see and oversee the next edition, I will so purge and order it that every reader may (if ingenious and ingenuous) give it deservedly the name of a Sure Guide." It is difficult to see in what the improvements he boasts of consist, for his is little more than a reprint of the earlier editions. With Herbert's edition the popularity of theSure Guidecame to an end, no doubt owing to the appearance of more recent works.

William Aufeild complained, not without reason, that most professors teach only what other men "have set downe to their hand in English many years agoe," and it is undeniable that several of the sixteenth-century French grammars continued to be used in England as late as the middle of the seventeenth century. Holyband was specially in favour, and so was De la Mothe. Peter Erondell, it has been seen, prepared new editions of theFrench Schoolemaisterin 1606, 1612, 1615, and 1619. Another French professor, James Giffard, was responsible for other editions in 1631, 1636, 1641, 1649, 1655, and it appears to have been printed again in 1668; this Giffard was probably the Jacques Giffard who attended the Threadneedle Street Church;[793]he is said to have been a native of the isle of Sark, and in 1640 he married Elizabeth Guilbert of Guernsey. Editions of theFrench Littletonsaw the light in 1602, 1607, 1625, 1630, 1633, and 1639. None of these editions contains any very noticeable alterations. The new editions of De la Mothe'sFrench Alphabet(1625, 1631, 1633, 1639, and 1647) are merely reprints of the first edition of 1592. Thus it came about that the French of the sixteenth century was still taught in England in the seventeenth, regardless of the great changes which had been accomplished in the language in the meantime.

The first half of the seventeenth century was also a period during which French began to receive greater recognition in the educational world. Latin, it is true, retained its supremacy in the grammar school; but it is significant that a considerable number of Latin school-books were adapted to teaching French, and helped to swell the number of such manuals at the service of students. Thus French gained a place by the side of Latin, and some went so far as to question the supremacy of Latin as the "learned" tongue of Europe. In 1619 Thomas Morrice[794]deemed it necessary to refute the "error" of those of his countrymen who placed French before Latin—"a most absurd paradox" in his opinion, for "French was never reckoned a learned tongue; it belongs by right to one country alone, where the people themselves learn Latin." Such protests had little effect. In the first years of the century we have the earliest recognition of French as distinct fromother modern languages, at the hands of a writer on education;FRENCH MAKES HEADWAYJ. Cleland held that a young gentleman's tutor should be skilled in the French as well as the Latin tongue, because "it is most used now universallie,"[795]and that the student, after translating English into Latin, should proceed to turn his Latin into French, "that he may profit in both the Tongues together."[796]

It was indeed by no means uncommon for French and English tutors to give instruction in both these tongues. Denisot, Palsgrave, Holyband, and many other French teachers had done so. Joseph Rutter, tutor to the son of the Earl of Dorset, at whose request he translated theCidinto English, is said to have made his pupil his collaborator in this task, and probably taught him French as well as Latin, and his case does not appear to have been exceptional. Evelyn, the diarist, learnt the rudiments of Latin from a Frenchman named Citolin, and probably picked up some French at the same time; travel abroad and his marriage with the daughter of Sir Richard Browne, English ambassador at Paris, who from her youth upwards had lived in France, gave him opportunities for improving his knowledge of the language, in which he was soon able to converse with ease.[797]Evelyn's son Richard also studied the two languages together; when he died in 1658, at the early age of five, he was able to say the catechism and pronounce English, Latin, and French accurately, also "to read an script, to decline nouns and conjugate all regular and most of the irregular verbs." He had likewise "learn'dPueriles, got by heart almost the entire vocabulary of Latine and French primitives and words, and could make congruous syntax, turne English into Latine andvice versa, construe and prove what he read, and did the government and use of relatives, verbs, substantives, elipses, and many figures and tropes, and made a considerable progress in Comenius'sJanua, began himself to write legibly, and had a strong passion for Greek."[798]

The manuals for teaching Latin and French together, either Latin school-books with French added, or works specially written for giving instruction in the two languages, probably resulted from this connexion. At an early date French had found a place in several Latin dictionaries.[799]Soon afterwardsit made its way into some of the Latin Colloquia and school authors. In 1591 the printer John Wyndet received a licence to print the dialogues of Corderius in French and English.[800]There is also a notice of an edition of Castellion'sSacred Dialoguesin the same two languages.[801]Aesop'sFableswere printed in English, French, and Latin in 1665, with the purpose of rendering the acquisition of these languages easier for young gentlemen and ladies; each fable is accompanied by an illustration due to Francis Barlow, and followed by a moral reflection. Thomas Philpott was responsible for the English version, and Robert Codrington, M.A., a versatile translator of the time, for the Latin and French. At least two other editions appeared in 1687 and 1703. Another favourite author was published in the same three languages at a later date—theThoughts of Cicero ... on (1) Religion, and (2) Man.... Published in Latin and French by the Abbé Olivet, to which is now added an English translation, with notes(by A. Wishart) (1750 and 1773). Of these few examples of Latin and French text-books, two are known only by hearsay. It is likely that others, adapted to the same purpose, have disappeared without leaving any trace at all; as such school-books were usually printed with a privilege, their names are not preserved in the registers of the Company of Stationers. Little wonder that such manuals, subjected to the double wear and tear of teaching both Latin and French, have been entirely lost. The one volume which has come down to us is Aesop'sFablesin French, Latin, and English, and its survival is explained by the elaborate and costly form in which it was issued.

In 1617 was published theJanua Linguarum Quadralinguisof Jean Barbier, a Parisian. The work, originally written in Spanish and Latin (1611) for the use of Spaniards, was in time adapted to teaching Latin and incidentally Spanish to the English, by the addition of an English translation in 1615. The fact that French was added two years later by Barbier is not without significance. Foremost among books for teaching French and Latin together, however, was the famousJanua Linguarumof Comenius, from which Evelyn's son learnt his Latin, and presumably his French also. It was printed in England in English, French, and Latin, in theveryBOOKS FOR TEACHING LATIN AND FRENCHyear in which it had first come out at Leszna in Latin and German (1631). In this form it was given the title ofPorta Linguarum trilinguis reserata et aperta, or the Gate of Tongues unlocked and opened. TheJanuacontains a thousand sentences, dealing with subjects encyclopaedic in plan, beginning with the origin of the world, and ending with death, providence, and the angels. The intervening chapters treat of the earth and its elements, animals, man, his life, education, occupations, afflictions, social institutions, and moral qualities. J. A. Anchoran, Licentiate in Divinity, a friend of Robert Codrington and apparently a Frenchman, was responsible for the edition of thePorta Linguarumin English, French, and Latin. He declares he prepared it "in behalf of" the young Prince Charles (II.), then about a year old, and of "British, French and Irish youth." His efforts proved successful; there were two issues of the work in 1631, and other editions appeared in 1633, 1637, and 1639.

With the second and following editions was bound an index to the French and Latin words contained in thePorta Linguarum, entitled:Clavis ad Portam or a Key fitted to open the gates of tongues wherein you may readily find the Latine and French for any English word, necessary for all young scholars.It was dedicated to the schoolmasters and ushers of England, and printed at Oxford, being the work of Wye Saltonstall, teacher of Latin and French in that University.

Yet another brief treatise was commonly bound with the 1633 edition of thePorta Linguarum—The Pathway to the Gate of Tongues, being the first Instruction for little children, intended as an introduction to Comenius, but chiefly to give instruction in French. It was due to one of the French teachers in London, Jean de Grave, no doubt the son of the "Jean de Grave natif d'Amsterdam" who came to England in the early years of the seventeenth century and died some time before 1612. De Grave was a member of the French Church, and in 1615 was twice threatened with expulsion owing to his sympathy with the Brownists; but he saved the situation by recanting.[802]De Grave'sPathwayto Comenius opens with a table of the numbers, the catechism, graces, and prayers, all given in Latin, English, and French. The main section gives the conjugation of the four regularverbs (j'aime,je bastis,je voy,je li) and ofaller,avoir,estre,il fautandon aime, in French accompanied by English and Latin equivalents in parallel columns. De Grave makes a point of omitting all the compound tenses usually introduced into French verbs on the model of the Latin ones, as such forms can only be expressed by means of paraphrases or of the verbsavoirandestre; thus French rather than Latin was in the author's mind: "Or m'a semblé qu'il ne fallait pas charger au commencement la memoire des petits enfants de choses desquelles le maistre diligent et industrieux, pourveu qu'il soit homme lettré et bien entendu en la grammaire françoise, pourra instiller peu à peu en leur esprit, plus par diligente pratique que par cette facheuse et prolixe circonlocution qui n'apporte aucun profit." He agreed with most of the French teachers of the time that few rules and much practice under the guidance of a good master, was the best way of learning French.

In the first half of the seventeenth century also, the private institutions in which French had a place increased considerably in number, especially during the latter years of the reign of Charles I. and the Commonwealth. There were several projects, of which a few were actually realized for a time, for founding academies in England on the model of those in France. Their aim was to provide instruction in modern languages and polite accomplishments, in order to counterbalance the one-sidedness of the Universities, and save parents the expense of sending their children abroad, and protect the latter from the dangers to which they might be exposed in foreign countries.

In 1635 the accomplished courtier Sir Francis Kynaston founded theMuseum Minervaeat his house in Bedford Square, Covent Garden. Latin, French, and Italian were the chief languages of the curriculum. No foreigner was allowed to act as either regent or professor. A regulation stipulated that "noe Gentleman shall speak in the forenoon to the Regent about any businesse, but either in Italian, French, or Latin; but if any gentleman be deficient in all these languages, then shall he deale with some professour or other to speak unto the regent for him in the morning, but in the afternoon free accesse shall be granted to all that have any occasion to conferre with him."[803]A certain Michael Mason was the professor of languages. TheAcademyFRENCH IN PRIVATE ACADEMIESwas short-lived, and probably did not survive its founder, who died at the beginning of the Civil War.

On the 19th of July 1649, another Academy of similar nature but wider scope was opened by the adventurous Sir Balthazar Gerbier in his house at Bethnal Green. In 1648 he published a prospectus, which appeared in several different forms, announcing to "all fathers of noble families and lovers of vertue" that "Sir Balthazar Gerbier, knight, erects an Academy wherein forraigne Languages, Sciences and all noble exercises shall be taught ... whereunto shall serve several treatises set forth by the said Sir B. G. in the Forraigne languages aforesaid, the English tongue being joyned thereunto ... whiche Treatises shall be continually at Mistresse Allen's Shop at the signe of the crown in Pope's head Alley neere the olde Exchange, London." Gerbier's intention was to teach the sciences and languages simultaneously, and by means of each other. French seems to have been the only foreign language which received special treatment at his hands. He was the author ofAn Introduction to the French Tongue, a work of very slight value, treating of the pronunciation and parts of speech and followed by a lengthy and wearisome dialogue between three travellers. Carrying out his expressed aim, he wrote several pamphlets on the subjects of polite education in French accompanied by a literal English translation.[804]Every Saturday afternoon a public lesson was read in the Academy, "as well concerning the grounds and rules of the aforesaid languages, as touching the sciences and exercises, which will give much satisfaction to all Fathers of noble families and lovers of vertue." There was also an "open lecture" by which the deserving poor were to be instructed gratis, on due recommendation. Gerbier is also said[805]to have started an Academy for languages at Whitehall. None of his efforts, however, met with much response. The private Academy as such was an institution which never really took root in England. Moreover, Gerbier was not a gifted man. The works he wrote for use in his Academy have very little value, and his lectures were severely criticised. Walpole calls one of them, typical of the rest, "a most trifling superficial rhapsody."

Several other schemes[806]for courtly academies were neverrealised at all. Such were those of Prince Henry, son of James I., and of Lord Admiral Buckingham. A play of the Commonwealth period, Brome'sNew Academy(1658), gives an amusing picture of one of these institutions and introduces us to a group of pushing French men and women who professinter aliato "teach the French Tongue with great alacrity."

Private schools, on the contrary, were better patronised. There were undoubtedly numerous French schools in the style of those of the sixteenth century; Wodroeph refers to one, without giving any details, and the language school kept by Sherwood was well known. In many instances also French found a place in other private schools alongside the more usual studies. Sir John Reresby, for example, was sent at the age of fifteen to a school at Enfield Chase, where he was instructed in Latin, French, writing, and dancing. There he stayed two years and "came to a very passable proficiency in Latin, Greek, French, and rhetoric."[807]The elder brother of Thomas Ellwood, Milton's amanuensis, also learnt French and Latin at a private school at Hadley, near Barnet in Hertfordshire, before going with Thomas to learn Latin and some Greek at the free school of Thame.[808]Such schools seem to have been relatively numerous at the time of the Commonwealth. One was kept by Edward Wolley, D.D. of Oxford, who had been domestic chaplain to Charles I., and taken refuge in France on his sovereign's death. After spending seven years abroad as chaplain to Charles II. in exile, he returned to England and opened a school at Hammersmith. In 1654 the Protector issued stringent orders against "scholemasters who are or shall be Ignorant, Scandalous, Insufficient or Negligent." Many royalists were affected, and it was no doubt as a result of this measure that in 1655 Wolley had to petition Cromwell to allow him to continue his "painful employment" of instructing youth in Latin, Greek, French, and other commendable exercises. He pleads that since his return from France he has demeaned himself irreproachably, and that he causes "the Holy Scriptures to be read and religious duties to be dailyused" in his school,FRENCH IN PRIVATE SCHOOLSand takes the children to church on Sunday; moreover "they have always spoken with honour and reverence of his Highness."[809]Among the few royalist and episcopal schoolmasters who were not affected by the measure of 1654 was Samuel Turberville, a "very good schoolmaster," who kept school in Kensington. Sir Ralph Verney's second son Jack, afterwards apprenticed to a merchant, spent three years there (1656-59), and Turberville commends his "amendement in writing, the mastery of his grammar and an indifferent Latin author, his preservation of the ffrench, and the command of his Violl."[810]Sir Ralph Verney's son had previously acquired French in France, and wrote it fluently though not always correctly.[811]His fellow-pupils, we are told, called him the "young mounseer."

There were also numerous schools for young ladies and gentlewomen in and about London and elsewhere. One French teacher, Paul Festeau, advertises the French boarding-school of Monsieur de la Mare at Marylebone, where girls were taught "to write, to read, to speak French, to sing, to dance, to play on the guitar and the spinette."[812]M. de la Mare was a Protestant, and a reader at the French Church. His wife was a good mother to the girls, we are told, and his daughter spoke French with much elegance. Another French teacher, PierreBerault, mentions the pension for young ladies kept by his friend M. Papillon in Charles Street, near St. James's Square. French, writing, singing, dancing, and designing were the subjects of study. In other cases schools for girls and young ladies were attended by a visiting French master. The most popular French teacher of the time, Claude Mauger of Blois, was employed for some time after his arrival in England as French teacher to the young ladies of Mrs. Kilvert's once famous Academy. This practice became more and more widespread as the seventeenth century advanced, and was very common in the eighteenth century, as it still is nowadays.

FOOTNOTES:[784]See p. 191,supra.[785]Dict. Nat. Biog., ad nom.[786]Catalogue of Books of some learned Men deceased, 1678. It was licensed to the printer Humphrey Lownes on 3rd January 1625 (Arber,Stationers' Register, iv. 133).[787]General Treasury of Accounts, London, 1612.[788]Guy Le Moyne was probably his French tutor; cp. p. 262,supra.[789]Written in France by Charles Maupas of Bloys. Translated into English with additions and explications peculiarly useful to us English, together with a preface and an introduction wherein are contained divers necessary instructions for the better understanding of it.[790]Italian reviv'd, 1673.[791]The Scholemaster, ed. Arber, 1869, p. 28; cp. p. 182,supra.[792]Is this a reference to Eliote'sOrtho-Epia Gallica?[793]Threadneedle Street French Church Registers, Hug. Soc. Pub. xiii. Pts. i. and ii. The earliest mention of Giffard occurs in 1629, and the latest in 1649.[794]Apologie for Schoolmasters.[795]Cleland,Institution of a young nobleman, 1607, pp. 28-29.[796]Ibid.p. 80.[797]His first literary attempt was a translation (1648) from the French of La Mothe le Vayer's essay on Liberty and Servitude.[798]Diary, January 27, 1658.[799]Cp. pp. 187sqq., supra.[800]Arber,Stationers' Register, ii. 576; iii. 466. An edition in French and Latin was printed in London as late as the eighteenth century.[801]R. Clavell,Catalogue of Books printed in London, 1666-1680.[802]Schickler,Églises du Refuge, i. 409. His name occurs frequently in theThreadneedle Street Church Registers, Hug. Soc. Pub. ix. and xiii.[803]The Constitution of the Museum Minervae, 1636. Charles I. granted £100 from the Treasury, and Kynaston himself provided books and other material.[804]The Interpreter of the Academy for forrain languages and all noble sciences and exercises, 1648.[805]Pepys,Diary, ed. Wheatley, iv. p. 148 n.[806]Oxford Historical Soc., 1885,Collectanea, series 1, pt. vi. pp. 271sqq.John Dury proposes a special class of schools for languages, which should teach the classics to those desiring "learning," and modern languages to those intended for commerce (Reformed School, 1650, quoted by F. Watson,Modern Subjects, p. xxvii).[807]Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, 1875, p. 22; andMemoirs and Travels, ed. A. Ivatt, London, 1904, p. xv.[808]Ellwood's Autobiography, London, 1714, p. 4.[809]Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1655-56, p. 76. On the Restoration, Wolley enjoyed ecclesiastical preferment, and finally became Bishop of Clonfert. He published an English translation from the French of Scudéry'sCuria Politiae, in 1546, and other works in English, of no special interest. SeeDict. Nat. Biog., ad nom.[810]Memoirs of the Verney Family, iii. p. 361.[811]He usually wrote home in French. In the following extract he asks for a taper, then in fashion among his school-mates: "Je vous prie de m'anvoier de la chandelle de cirre entortillée, car tous les garçons en ont pour brullay (sic) et moy ie n'en ay point pour moy."[812]Two parents discuss the school in a dialogue:Où allez vous?Whither are you going?Je m'en vais voir ma fille.I am going to see my daughter.En quel lieu?In what place?A Maribone.At Maribone.Que fait elle là?What doth she do there?Comment, ne sçavez vous pas que je l'ay mise en pension?What, do you not know that I have put her at a Boording school?Chez qui?With whom?Chez un nommé Mons. de la Mare qui tient escole Françoise.At one Mons. de la Mare that keeps a French school.Vrayement, je n'en sçavois rien.Truly, I did not know it.Qu'apprend elle là?What does she learn there?Elle apprend à écrire, à lire, à parler françois, à chanter, à danser, à jouer de la guitare, and the spinette.She learns to write, to read, to speak French, to sing, to dance, to play on the guitar, et de l'épinette.

[784]See p. 191,supra.

[785]Dict. Nat. Biog., ad nom.

[786]Catalogue of Books of some learned Men deceased, 1678. It was licensed to the printer Humphrey Lownes on 3rd January 1625 (Arber,Stationers' Register, iv. 133).

[787]General Treasury of Accounts, London, 1612.

[788]Guy Le Moyne was probably his French tutor; cp. p. 262,supra.

[789]Written in France by Charles Maupas of Bloys. Translated into English with additions and explications peculiarly useful to us English, together with a preface and an introduction wherein are contained divers necessary instructions for the better understanding of it.

[790]Italian reviv'd, 1673.

[791]The Scholemaster, ed. Arber, 1869, p. 28; cp. p. 182,supra.

[792]Is this a reference to Eliote'sOrtho-Epia Gallica?

[793]Threadneedle Street French Church Registers, Hug. Soc. Pub. xiii. Pts. i. and ii. The earliest mention of Giffard occurs in 1629, and the latest in 1649.

[794]Apologie for Schoolmasters.

[795]Cleland,Institution of a young nobleman, 1607, pp. 28-29.

[796]Ibid.p. 80.

[797]His first literary attempt was a translation (1648) from the French of La Mothe le Vayer's essay on Liberty and Servitude.

[798]Diary, January 27, 1658.

[799]Cp. pp. 187sqq., supra.

[800]Arber,Stationers' Register, ii. 576; iii. 466. An edition in French and Latin was printed in London as late as the eighteenth century.

[801]R. Clavell,Catalogue of Books printed in London, 1666-1680.

[802]Schickler,Églises du Refuge, i. 409. His name occurs frequently in theThreadneedle Street Church Registers, Hug. Soc. Pub. ix. and xiii.

[803]The Constitution of the Museum Minervae, 1636. Charles I. granted £100 from the Treasury, and Kynaston himself provided books and other material.

[804]The Interpreter of the Academy for forrain languages and all noble sciences and exercises, 1648.

[805]Pepys,Diary, ed. Wheatley, iv. p. 148 n.

[806]Oxford Historical Soc., 1885,Collectanea, series 1, pt. vi. pp. 271sqq.John Dury proposes a special class of schools for languages, which should teach the classics to those desiring "learning," and modern languages to those intended for commerce (Reformed School, 1650, quoted by F. Watson,Modern Subjects, p. xxvii).

[807]Memoirs of Sir John Reresby, 1875, p. 22; andMemoirs and Travels, ed. A. Ivatt, London, 1904, p. xv.

[808]Ellwood's Autobiography, London, 1714, p. 4.

[809]Cal. State Papers, Dom., 1655-56, p. 76. On the Restoration, Wolley enjoyed ecclesiastical preferment, and finally became Bishop of Clonfert. He published an English translation from the French of Scudéry'sCuria Politiae, in 1546, and other works in English, of no special interest. SeeDict. Nat. Biog., ad nom.

[810]Memoirs of the Verney Family, iii. p. 361.

[811]He usually wrote home in French. In the following extract he asks for a taper, then in fashion among his school-mates: "Je vous prie de m'anvoier de la chandelle de cirre entortillée, car tous les garçons en ont pour brullay (sic) et moy ie n'en ay point pour moy."

[812]Two parents discuss the school in a dialogue:Où allez vous?Whither are you going?Je m'en vais voir ma fille.I am going to see my daughter.En quel lieu?In what place?A Maribone.At Maribone.Que fait elle là?What doth she do there?Comment, ne sçavez vous pas que je l'ay mise en pension?What, do you not know that I have put her at a Boording school?Chez qui?With whom?Chez un nommé Mons. de la Mare qui tient escole Françoise.At one Mons. de la Mare that keeps a French school.Vrayement, je n'en sçavois rien.Truly, I did not know it.Qu'apprend elle là?What does she learn there?Elle apprend à écrire, à lire, à parler françois, à chanter, à danser, à jouer de la guitare, and the spinette.She learns to write, to read, to speak French, to sing, to dance, to play on the guitar, et de l'épinette.

[812]Two parents discuss the school in a dialogue:

Où allez vous?Whither are you going?Je m'en vais voir ma fille.I am going to see my daughter.En quel lieu?In what place?A Maribone.At Maribone.Que fait elle là?What doth she do there?Comment, ne sçavez vous pas que je l'ay mise en pension?What, do you not know that I have put her at a Boording school?Chez qui?With whom?Chez un nommé Mons. de la Mare qui tient escole Françoise.At one Mons. de la Mare that keeps a French school.Vrayement, je n'en sçavois rien.Truly, I did not know it.Qu'apprend elle là?What does she learn there?Elle apprend à écrire, à lire, à parler françois, à chanter, à danser, à jouer de la guitare, and the spinette.She learns to write, to read, to speak French, to sing, to dance, to play on the guitar, et de l'épinette.

Inthe second half of the seventeenth century we come across a band of French teachers in London, which corresponds, in importance, to that which grouped itself round Claude Holyband in the vicinity of St. Paul's Churchyard at the same period in the sixteenth century. At its head was Claude Mauger, a native of Blois. Mauger had as long a teaching experience in London as Holyband; he arrived in about 1650, and we do not hear the last of him till the first decade of the next century. He was forced to quit his native town by "intestine distempers," probably an allusion to the persecutions which broke out there in the middle of the century. He appears to have been a Huguenot. Before coming to England he had been a student at Orleans, and for seven years had taught French to travellers, "the flowre of all Europe," at Blois,[813]where some years previously Maupas had laboured at the same task; among his pupils was Gustavus Adolphus, Prince of Mecklenburg. On arriving in England, Mauger exercised the same profession. And several others, driven from Blois like himself, gathered around him as friends, admirers, and fellow-workers. Among these, he tells us, he reckons Master Penson and Master Festeau as specially good masters of language. Of Penson nothing is known, save that he wrote some lines addressed to Mauger's critics. Festeau, however, is mentioned elsewhere by Mauger with high commendation, and the two seem to have been close friends. He came to England about the same time as Mauger, and may have accompanied him. These members of the "Little Blois" in London prided themselves on teaching the accent of Blois, "wherethe true tone of the French tongue is found, by the unanimous consent of all Frenchmen." The accent of Blois had already been recommended by some of the earlier French teachers. Charles Maupas was its foremost champion.

Fate had been very unkind to him before his arrival in England, Mauger tells us. But he soon forgot his sorrows in his busy and successful life in London. Pupils flocked to him, and, as we saw, he was called upon by Mrs. Margaret Kilvert to teach French in her Academy for young gentlewomen—a place, according to him, "which needs nothing, only a name worthy to expresse its excellency." At the same time he was busy writing a French grammar, which appeared in 1653, and was dedicated to Mrs. Kilvert—The True Advancement of the French Tongue, or a New Method and more easie directions for the attaining of it than ever yet have been published, preceded by verses addressed to no less than fifty of his lady pupils. It does not differ materially as regards its contents from previous works of the kind and had apparently been first written in French, for Mauger says his work "hath now put on a language to which it was before a stranger." Rules of grammar and pronunciation occupy the first hundred and twenty pages, and the remaining half of the book comprises reading exercises in French and English, and a vocabulary. The sound of each letter is explained, then the declinable parts are treated in turn, and followed by a few scattered rules of syntax. The whole is a little incoherent, and lacks order. Mauger was evidently acquainted with the work of his fellow-townsman Charles Maupas.

The second section of Mauger's grammar begins with lists of anglicisms to be avoided,[814]and then of "certaine francisms," or French idioms, and of familiar French phrases for common use. The dialogues turn chiefly on the study of French, and include discussions between students of French, talk of travel in France, and polite and gallant conversations between French and English ladies and gentlemen. Considering Mauger's many women pupils, it is not surprising to find a considerable part of his book devoted to them: two ladies discuss French and their French teacher, criticise the French accent of their friends, or receive visits or lessons fromtheir French, music, or dancing masters.CLAUDE MAUGERAnd as the two latter, especially the dancing-master, were usually French, they did much to assist the language tutor. French maids are also often introduced, and represented as instructing their mistresses in the French language as well as in French fashions. It is no doubt Mrs. Kilvert's Academy that is referred to in the following dialogue:

Mon père, je vous prie, donnés moy vostre bénédiction.I pray, Father, give me your blessing.Ma fille, soyés la bien revenue.Daughter, you are welcome home.Comment se porte Mme. votre Maîtresse?How does your mistress?Mons. elle se porte bien.She is very well, Sir.N'avés vous point oublié votre Anglois?Have you not forgot your English quite?Non, mon père.No, sir.Je croy que vous parlés extrêmement bien.I suppose you speak French excellently well by this time?J'entends beaucoup mieux que je ne parle.I understand it better than I can speak it.Laquelle est la plus sçavante de vous deux?Which of you two is the best proficient?C'est ma sœur.—Je ne pense pas.My sister, Sir.—I don't believe that.Expliqués moy ce livre là en François.Render me some of that book back into French.Que signifie cela en François?What's that in French?Entendés vous cette sentence là?Do you understand that sentence?Ouy, Mons.Yes, Sir.Vous avez bien profité. . . .You have made good proficiency....Sçavez vous travailler en ouvrages?Have you learnt any needlework there?Vostre luth n'est pas d'accord. . . .Your lute is out of tune....Et vous, ma fille, vous ne dites rien?But you, daughter, have you nothing to say?J'attendois vos ordres.I expect your commands.Qu'avez vous appris?What have you learnt?Approchez vous de moy.Come nearer to me.Dancés une courante.Dance me a Courante.

In another dialogue a French gentleman compliments an English lady on her French:

Où avés vous appris à parler François, Mademoiselle?Monsieur, je ne parle pas, je ne fais que bégayer.Je vous proteste que d'abord j'ay creu que vous fussiés Françoise.Il est impossible à une Angloise de posséder vostre langue.Vous m'excuserés, il s'en trouve beaucoup.J'eus l'honneur il y a quelque temps d'entretenir une Dame qui parle aussi nettement qu'une Françoise.Je voy que vous avez inclination pour le François.Fort grande.Vous avez l'accent fort pur et net.De qui apprenés vous?D'un François nouvellement arrivé qui est de Blois.Il est vray que la pureté du langage se trouve là, non pas seulement l'accent, mais la vraye phrase.Tout le monde le dit.Vostre langue est fort difficile.Je voudrois parler aussi bien que vous.

Où avés vous appris à parler François, Mademoiselle?

Monsieur, je ne parle pas, je ne fais que bégayer.

Je vous proteste que d'abord j'ay creu que vous fussiés Françoise.

Il est impossible à une Angloise de posséder vostre langue.

Vous m'excuserés, il s'en trouve beaucoup.

J'eus l'honneur il y a quelque temps d'entretenir une Dame qui parle aussi nettement qu'une Françoise.

Je voy que vous avez inclination pour le François.

Fort grande.

Vous avez l'accent fort pur et net.

De qui apprenés vous?

D'un François nouvellement arrivé qui est de Blois.

Il est vray que la pureté du langage se trouve là, non pas seulement l'accent, mais la vraye phrase.

Tout le monde le dit.

Vostre langue est fort difficile.

Je voudrois parler aussi bien que vous.

There is only one dialogue on a subject usually contained in French manuals—phrases for buying and selling. The vocabulary, which closes the book, is of a more usual kind. It is arranged under headings, beginning with the Godhead and ending with a list of things necessary in a house.

This book of Mauger's enjoyed a greater and longer-lived popularity than any that had yet appeared. Edition followed edition until the end of the first decade of the eighteenth century, and it continued to be plagiarised for another fifty years. Its success can hardly have been due to the scholastic value of its rules, which are few and confused, but rather to its practical nature and lively dialogues. Mauger constantly revised his grammar; of the earliest editions, no two are identical. In each case he wrote new dedications, new addresses to the reader, new dialogues, and varied the form of the grammar rules. The second edition is much more typical than the first. Mauger had been ill in 1653, and had not been able to correct the proofs himself. This task he entrusted to a friend (perhaps Festeau), who "betrayed his expectation, and corrected it not exactly." He was likewise unable to add the English column to the dialogues, a task which was undertaken by the corrector of the press. In the case of the second edition, however, he attended "three times a day at the Presse," that he might correct it according "to the expectation of those who will honour it with their reading." He called itMr. Mauger's French Grammar, and this was the title under which it continued to be published.

Mauger dedicated the second edition to Colonel Bullar, mentioning the many favours heaped upon him by that officer. He again addresses French verses to numerous English ladies, his pupils. The grammar rules are much the same; the chief change in this part is the addition of a Latin translation to the English, "for to render it generally useful to strangers" visiting London, "which is this day accounted one of the most glorious cities of the world." That Mauger provided for the teaching of French to foreign visitors to England shows how important a place the study of the language held in our country, and we know that he numbered a few foreigners among his many students of the language. In this second edition he attempted, as Holyband had done before him, to adapt the orthography to the pronunciation, but without success. "I had thought," he writes, "for your greater advantage, to have fitted theMAUGER'S FRENCH GRAMMARwriting to the pronunciation,but having found that I could not do so, without an absolute totall subverting of the foundations of the language, I had rather teach you to read and speak together than to show you how to speak without being able to read, or to read without knowing how to speak. They might say nevertheless that it would prevent many difficultyes if we did write as we speak." Mauger decided to follow the rules of the French Academy, instead of his owncaprichiowhich would "teach you to speak French without being able to read any other book than that I should present you with": for "our language," he said, "which is so highly esteemed by all strangers for its noble etymologies of Greeke and Latine, will not suffer itself to be so dismembered by the ignorance of those which profess it, not having one letter which doth not distinguish one word from another, the singular number from the plurall, the masculine gender from the foeminine, or which makes not a syllable long or short."

The dialogues are new, but very similar to those of the first edition, the chief change being the introduction of a long and "exact account of the state of France, ecclesiastical, civil, and military as it flourisheth at present under King Louis XIV.," which was brought up to date in each subsequent edition.

In following years the dialogues become more numerous; they number eighty in the sixth edition (1670). Each new issue promises additions, "of the last concern to the reader." A new feature in the sixth and seventh editions is a versified rendering of the grammar rules, entitledLe Parterre de la langue françoise. The verses were written at the request of the Duke of Mecklenburg, his former pupil, and arranged in the form of a dialogue between Mauger and the Duke, who first addresses his master:

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